Sirach 38 - New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Concerning Physicians and Health

38 Honor physicians for their services,
for the Lord created them,^(A)
2 for their gift of healing comes from the Most High,
and they are rewarded by the king.
³ The skill of physicians makes them distinguished,
and in the presence of the great they are admired.
⁴ The Lord created medicines out of the earth,
and the sensible will not despise them.^(B)
5 Was not water made sweet with a tree
in order that its^[a] power might be known?^(C)
6 And he gave skill to human beings
that he^[b] might be glorified in his marvelous works.
⁷ By them the physician^[c] heals and takes away pain;^(D)
8 the pharmacist makes a mixture from them.
God’s^[d] works will never be finished,
and from him health spreads over all the earth.

⁹ My child, when you are ill, do not delay,
but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you.^(E)
10 Give up your faults and direct your hands rightly,
and cleanse your heart from all sin.^(F)
11 Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice and a memorial portion of choice flour,
and pour oil on your offering, as much as you can afford.^[e](G)
12 Then give physicians their place, for the Lord created them;
do not let them leave you, for you need them.^(H)
13 There may come a time when recovery lies in the hands of physicians,^[f]
14 for they, too, pray to the Lord
that he grant them success in diagnosis^[g]
and in healing, for the sake of preserving life.
¹⁵ Those who sin against their Maker
will be defiant toward the physician.^[h](I)

On Mourning for the Dead

¹⁶ My child, let your tears fall for the dead,
and as one in great pain begin the lament.
Lay out the body according to custom,
and do not neglect the burial.^(J)
17 Let your weeping be bitter and your wailing fervent;
make your mourning worthy of the departed,
for one day or two, to avoid criticism;
then be comforted for your grief.^(K)
18 For grief may result in death,
and a sorrowful heart saps one’s strength.^(L)
19 In calamity, grief continues,
but the life of the poor is a curse to the heart.
²⁰ Do not give your heart to grief;
drive it away and remember your own end.^(M)
21 Do not forget, there is no coming back;
you do the dead^[i] no good, and you injure yourself.^(N)
22 Remember his^[j] fate, for yours is like it;
yesterday it was his,^[k] and today it is yours.^(O)
23 When the dead are at rest, let their remembrance rest, too,
and be comforted for them when their spirits have departed.^(P)

Trades and Crafts

²⁴ The wisdom of the scribe depends on the opportunity of leisure;
only the one who has little business can become wise.^(Q)
25 How can one become wise who handles the plow
and who glories in the shaft of a goad,
who drives oxen and is occupied with their work,
and whose talk is about the offspring of bulls?
²⁶ He sets his heart on plowing furrows,
and he loses sleep over fodder for the heifers.
²⁷ So it is with every artisan and master artisan
who labors by night as well as by day;
those who carve the signets of seals—
each is diligent in making a great variety;
they set their heart on painting a lifelike image,
and they lose sleep in order to finish their work.^(R)
28 So it is with the smith sitting by the anvil,
intent on his ironwork;
the breath of the fire melts his flesh,
and he struggles with the heat of the furnace;
the sound of the hammer deafens his ears,^[l]
and his eyes are on the pattern of the object.
He sets his heart on finishing his handiwork,
and he loses sleep to complete its decoration.^(S)
29 So it is with the potter sitting at his work
and turning the wheel with his feet;
he always lies down anxious about his work,
and his every work is taken into account.^(T)
30 He molds the clay with his arm
and makes it pliable with his feet;
he sets his heart to finish the glazing,
and he takes care in firing^[m] the kiln.

³¹ All these rely on their hands,
and all are skillful in their own work.
³² Without them no city can be inhabited,
and wherever they live they will not go hungry.^[n]
Yet they are not sought out for the council of the people,^[o]
33 nor do they attain eminence in the public assembly.
They do not sit in the judge’s seat,
nor do they understand the decisions of the courts;
they cannot expound discipline or judgment,
and they are not found among the rulers.^[p]
34 But they maintain the fabric of the world,
and their concern is for^[q] the exercise of their trade.

The Activity of the Scribe

How different the one who devotes himself
to the study of the law of the Most High!

Footnotes

1. 38.5Or his
2. 38.6Or they
3. 38.7Heb: Gk he
4. 38.8Gk His
5. 38.11Heb: Lat lacks as much as you can afford; meaning of Gk uncertain
6. 38.13Gk in their hands
7. 38.14Heb: Gk rest
8. 38.15Heb: Gk may they fall into the hands of the physician
9. 38.21Gk him
10. 38.22Heb: Gk my
11. 38.22Heb: Gk mine
12. 38.28Cn: Gk renews his ear
13. 38.30Cn: Gk cleaning
14. 38.32Syr: Gk and people can neither live nor walk there
15. 38.32Most ancient authorities lack this line
16. 38.33Cn: Gk among parables
17. 38.34Syr: Gk prayer is in

Cross references

1. 38.1 : v 12
2. 38.4 : 2 Kings 20.7; Ezek 47.12
3. 38.5 : Ex 15.25; 2 Esd 1.23
4. 38.7 : Jer 8.22; 46.11; 51.8
5. 38.9 : Isa 38.2
6. 38.10 : Ps 51.10; 73.13; Jn 5.14
7. 38.11 : Lev 2.1; Sir 35.3, 8
8. 38.12 : v 1
9. 38.15 : 1 Cor 11.30
10. 38.16 : Sir 22.11
11. 38.17 : Gen 50.10; Acts 8.2
12. 38.18 : Prov 15.13; Sir 30.23; 2 Cor 7.10
13. 38.20 : Sir 7.36
14. 38.21 : 2 Sam 12.23; Job 7.9
15. 38.22 : Gen 3.19
16. 38.23 : 2 Sam 12.20–23
17. 38.24 : 1 Cor 1.20
18. 38.27 : Wis 14.19
19. 38.28 : Isa 44.12
20. 38.29 : Wis 15.7